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Egyptian TV station announces Gaza cease-fire, but Israeli-Palestinian fighting persists

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Wednesday, while Israel pressed ahead with a series of airstrikes that have killed 21 Palestinians, including three senior militants and at least 10 civilians.As the fighting continued, a state-run Egyptian TV station announced that Egypt had brokered a cease-fire. But shortly after the announcement, more rockets were fired toward Israel, raising questions about if or when a truce would take effect.The rocket fire set off air-raid sirens throughout southern Israel and as far away as Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean Sea, 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. Residents had been bracing for an attack since Israel launched its first airstrikes early Tuesday.It was the heaviest fighting between the sides in months, pushing the region closer toward a full-blown war. But in signs that both sides were trying to show restraint, Israel avoided attacks on the ruling Hamas militant group, targ...

George Santos charged with fraud, including stealing from campaign to buy designer clothes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican infamous for fabricating his life story, has been indicted on charges that he duped donors, stole from his campaign and lied to Congress about being a millionaire, all while cheating to collect unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve, prosecutors said Wednesday.The indictment was a reckoning for a web of fraud and deceit that prosecutors say overlapped with Santos’ fantastical public image as a wealthy businessman — a fictional biography that began to unravel after he won election last fall.Santos surrendered on Wednesday and was taken to a federal courthouse on Long Island, where he was expected to make an initial court appearance on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress.Among the allegations, prosecutors say Santos induced supporters to donate to a company under the false pretense that the money would be used to support his campai...

Federally regulated workplaces will soon provide menstrual products for free

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

Federally regulated workplaces are expected to begin offering free menstrual products to workers starting in mid-December.Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan has announced changes to the Canada Labour Code that would ensure access to such products beginning Dec. 15.The Liberals promised in their 2021 election campaign to make free tampons and pads available in federally regulated workplaces, and set up a fund to make menstrual products available to vulnerable people.The 2022 federal budget allocated $25 million to establish a national pilot for the menstrual equity fund, which aims to help make menstrual products available to people who may have challenges affording them.Increased awareness of “period poverty” — a term used to describe financial barriers to accessing menstrual products — has led various jurisdictions to make menstrual products more widely available.Scotland passed a law last year to make menstrual products free for anyone who needs them.

4 arrested in North Macedonia after cocaine bust in Greece

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Four people have been arrested in North Macedonia, police said Wednesday, following cooperation with Greek authorities over a cocaine shipment seized in neighboring Greece a day earlier.A total of 14 people have now been detained in both countries as a result of Tuesday’s operation in Greece’s northern port city of Thessaloniki, where Greek officers confiscated 105 kilograms (230 pounds) of cocaine.The drugs from South America had been brought to Thessaloniki on a cargo ship, and were hidden in hollow external sections of shipping containers that held a consignment of bananas from Ecuador.North Macedonia’s police said in a statement that they arrested two men and a woman Tuesday, and a third man Wednesday as he was allegedly trying to cross the border from Greece. All four were nationals of North Macedonia, and are suspected of belonging to an international organized crime ring, the statement said.It added that the drug shipment was ordered...

Scorsese to stir Cannes again, 47 years after ‘Taxi Driver’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

When Martin Scorsese premieres his latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20th, it will return Scorsese to a festival where he remains a key part of its fabled history. Scorsese premiered his masterpiece of urban alienation, “Taxi Driver,” in Cannes in 1976. Its debut was one of the most fevered in Cannes history, drawing boos and some walkouts for the violence in Scorsese’s tale of the disillusioned New York cab driver Travis Brickle (Robert De Niro). The playwright Tennessee Williams, then the jury president, condemned the film. “Films should not take a voluptuous pleasure in spilling blood and lingering on terrible cruelties as though one were at a Roman circus,” Williams said.Yet “Taxi Driver” nevertheless won Cannes’ top honor, the Palme d’Or. Having heard of Williams’ disapproval, Scorsese and company had already flown home, with dashed hopes of any big award.“I got a call from (publicist) Marion Billings around fi...

Toronto police shoot man armed with knife on Danforth

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

Toronto police say a man has been rushed to a hospital via emergency run after a shooting involving a responding officer.Authorities said the shooting happened around noon on Wednesday east of the city in the Danforth Avenue and Victoria Park Avenue area.The man reportedly was armed with a knife and was shot by a Toronto police officer.The investigation is ongoing.OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTINGDanforth Ave & Victoria Park Avenue12:09 pm-man armed with a knife-officer has discharged their firearm-male being transported to hospital via emergency run-ongoing investigation#GO1044531^sc— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) May 10, 2023More to come

Pakistan’s ex-PM Khan ordered detained amid unrest

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can be held for eight days, a court ruled Wednesday, a day after the popular opposition leader was dragged from a courtroom and arrested on corruption charges, deepening the country’s political turmoil.Khan’s arrest Tuesday set off violent clashes involving his supporters and police in several cities, including Islamabad, that left at least six people dead, and his continued detention raised the prospect of more unrest. Following a Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif denounced the attacks on public property and military installations, and he approved the deployment of troops in the capital of Islamabad, in the country’s most populous province of Punjab, and in the volatile northwest, according to a government statement.In the latest unrest, thousands of protesters stormed a radio station and offices of the state-run agency in the northwestern city of Peshawar.The military weighed Wednesday with ...

Stock market today: Wall Street is mixed after inflation report

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is mixed on Wednesday after a report showed inflation is making strides toward easing, even if it remains too high. The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in midday trading after giving up most of an earlier gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 104 points, or 0.3%, at 33,457, as of noon. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher. Bond prices climbed after the highly anticipated report said inflation at the consumer level edged down to 4.9% last month, its lowest level in two years. That was slightly better than economists expected, and other underlying measures of inflation also came in very close to forecasts. Because the inflation data was roughly as expected, Wall Street sees the door still open for the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates alone at its next meeting in June. That would be the first time it hasn’t raised rates at a meeting in more than a year, and a pause would offer some breathing room for the economy and financia...

UK ditches post-Brexit plan to scrap thousands of EU laws by year’s end

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s bonfire of European Union laws has been reduced to embers.The U.K. government on Wednesday scrapped a plan to remove all remaining EU laws, about 4,000 in all, from British statute books by the end of this year — a post-Brexit goal that critics said was rash and unachievable.Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said in a written statement that the government would instead draw up a list of about 600 specific laws that would be revoked. Badenoch acknowledged there were “risks of legal uncertainty” if all EU laws were ditched by the end of the year.A lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, Jenny Chapman, called the announcement “a humiliating U-turn from a weak and divided government.”Thousands of pieces of EU law were cut-and-pasted into U.K. legislation when Britain left the bloc in 2020 after decades of membership, to ensure continuity for people and businesses.The government’s Retained EU Law Bill would have automatically removed all of them at the end...

The US has approved $42 billion in loan forgiveness for public service workers. Here’s what to know

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:55:32 GMT

The U.S. has approved more than $42 billion in federal student loan debt forgiveness for more than 615,000 borrowers in the past 18 months as part of a program aimed at getting more people to work in public service jobs, the U.S. Department of Education said this week.The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is open to teachers, librarians, nurses, public interest lawyers, military members and other public workers. It cancels a borrower’s remaining student debt after 10 years of public interest work, or 120 monthly payments.The program is separate from President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, which would wipe away or reduce loans for millions of borrowers regardless of what field they work in. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether that plan can go ahead.The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, known as PSLF, was launched in 2007, but stringent rules meant that more than 90% of applicants were rejected, the Department of Education said in 2019.In...